While tomorrow will be a magical day in the United States as many Americans take the day off to celebrate Independence Day with cookouts, fireworks and other assorted tomfoolery, today is a magical day across the pond for an entirely different reason.

The currently untitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sequel started production at Leavesden Studios today, which is where all of the Harry Potter movies have been filmed since the beginning of the franchise. Warner Bros. Pictures sent out an official press release about the start of production, and with it comes some new details on the story, as well as notes on a handful of new characters coming into the fray. Find out everything you need to know about the Fantastic Beasts sequel plot and more below. Read More »

We may not be getting a new Harry Potter book written by J.K. Rowling anytime soon, but the next best thing has arrived in the form of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. However, is the wizarding world as interesting without any of the signature Harry Potter characters at the center of the story?

The short answer is not exactly, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a thoroughly entertaining extension of the magical franchise, one with just enough wonder to get by, some captivating performances (despite underwhelming characters), and the promise of a build-up to something absolutely epic. Get some extended thoughts on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them after the jump, and chime in with your own reaction in the comments, but beware of MAJOR SPOILERS for the movie from here on out. Read More »

As we’ve already seen in the Harry Potter movies, the wizarding world has plenty of delicious food we don’t have in the Muggle world, like butterbeer. But even a more run-of-the-mill treats seem more special when they’re lovingly crafted via magic, as No-Maj Jacob (Dan Fogler) discovers in a just-released scene from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Watch the first Fantastic Beasts clip below.

Were just over a month away from the expansion of the wizarding world on the big screen with the arrival of the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The most recent trailer is what finally got me excited about what this franchise starter has to offer, and now a new batch of character posters offer some interesting details that provide some insight into the new characters we’ll be meeting, including Eddie Redmayne as New Scamander. Some offer little plot details while one in particular features a certain symbol that Harry Potter fans will recognize immediately.

Check out the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them character posters after the jump. Read More »

For a few minutes on Saturday, Comic-Con’s Hall H was taken over by magic. In a sweet Comic-Con surprise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star Eddie Redmayne handed out wands to the entire audience, and then led all 7,000 people in shouting “lumos maxima” to bring more light into the room.

But that wasn’t the most exciting thing to come out of the panel. That would be the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trailer, which you can see below.

The latest trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them didn’t feature many specific plot details and it didn’t properly introduce the majority of the cast. What it did do was start to build the connections between J.K. Rowling‘s latest foray into her beloved Wizarding World and the Harry Potter movies, using familiar imagery, music, and names to let the more casual folks in the audience know that this movie exists in the same universe as Severus Snape and Hermione Granger. It just happens to take place a few decades earlier. The trailer even went as far as to mention a certain Albus Dumbledore.

Naturally, name-dropping the future headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry got fans wondering – will any familiar faces actually show up in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? After all, it takes place an ocean and 80 or so years away from the Harry Potter movies.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has encountered its first Muggle. Dan Fogler has signed on for the Harry Potter spinoff, joining Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, and Ezra Miller. Get all the details on the Fantastic Beasts Dan Fogler casting after the jump. Read More »

There was a moment around the turn of the decade when Dan Fogler seemed ubiquitous, popping up in everything from Fanboys to Kung Fu Panda to Take Me Home Tonight. But for the past couple of years, he’s kept a somewhat lower profile with roles on TV shows like Hannibal and indies such as Scenic Route and Europa Report.

His latest appearance is an indie, too, but this time around he’s much more involved. He’s the co-writer and co-director (with Michael Canzoniero) and also the star of Don Peyote, a trippy comedy about an ordinary man who either achieves enlightenment or goes nuts, depending on how you want to look at it. Anne Hathaway, Abel Ferrara, Jay Baruchel, Josh Duhamel, and Wallace Shawn co-star, or at least cameo. Watch the first trailer after the jump.

In the States, Thanksgiving is practically synonymous with turkey. Any mention of the holiday automatically conjures images of a big, juicy, oven-roasted bird, and vice versa. Even vegetarians aren’t immune to the association — plenty of them nod to tradition with products like Tofurkey.

But as pleasant as it is for us humans to gorge ourselves on tryptophan-laced poultry, you can’t blame turkeys for wishing they could remove themselves from the menu. In Relativity’s Free Birds, two of them finally get the chance to do just that. Reggie (Owen Wilson) and Jake (Woody Harrelson) find a time machine to take them back to the very first Thanksgiving, where they attempt to save their kind once and for all. Hit the jump to watch the first trailer.